1. One of the examples of the type of divine violence in scripture is instant executioner. One example of this in the Bible is when Lot’s wife turns around to look at Sodom and Gomorrah as they are leaving, and she is instantly turned into a pillar of salt. A big problem with this is that God does not specify why she was turned into a pillar of salt. There is no reason directly given to why this event occurred, and puts fear in people. IT shows that God can decide that He did not like what she did, and just turns her into a pillar of salt to make a point. Another example of a type of divine violence is mass murderer. An example of this is the flood story. With the flood God decides that the world is evil, so He is just going to wipe out everyone except a select few. Once again it puts fear in the hearts of people because there is no real reason why God needed to take this action, and not one of love and a change of heart. A third example of divine violence is divine warrior and that is shown with the plagues because God targets people that are not directly in control of what is happening. God attacks all Egyptian first-born children, who have done nothing to His people, but still are persecuted. A fourth example of divine violence is divine abuser and this correlates with the story of Abraham and Isaac. God demands Abraham to sacrifice his only son in His name. Only to tell Abraham that it was a test, and that he has passed and shown his obedience to God. God here is abusing
God is depicted in the Old Testament with a very bad reputation. David Lamb is an old testament professor and he addresses some of the reasons for this bad reputation. In Lamb’s book, God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist? In his book, there are seven specific citations addressed that provide proof and evidence for those who would believe “God behaves badly.” The examples that Professor Lamb chose are: angry or loving, sexist or affirming, racist or hospitable, violent or peaceful, legalistic or gracious, rigid or flexible, and distant or near. With each chapter that Lamb writes, it provides multiple biblical narrative accounts and establishes a basis for the particular argument aimed against God.
The only thing that God can do, and does all of the time, is to draw good from any evil
Over the course of humanity, one thing has stayed fairly consistent, and that is the devastation which water is capable of. In his sermon, Edward’s explains how God can use the power of water to harm and cause trauma in people’s lives. Edward’s was explaining the growing temper God had with humanity when he lectured, “The wrath of God is like great waters that are damned for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose” (Edwards 2). People didn’t believe that their God would ever do anything to cause them harm, but Edwards believes that God will one day become fed up and lose his
Stephen Asma’s chapter on Biblical Monsters in On Monsters shows how godly monsters were on the rise in the Medieval eras. Whether it was gods’ testing of one’s faith, or individuals’ justifications as to why monsters were on earth, we can see the rise through this Medieval period as gods’ uses of monsters varies. In Asma’s subsection over The Apocalypse, he discusses numerous interactions between good and evil monsters where they are disguised almost as that of a symbolic gesture. For instance, Asma explains how God sometimes will use his monstrous capabilities to cause harm to an individual to test ones faith. We see this in particular when the devil convinces God to test Job this way (Asma 64).Throughout this period in time, we see the classic biblical beasts such as the Behemoth and Leviathan at work. These monsters, among
Generally the action is benevolence while the threat is his anger. What i mean to say is that when g-d does act it usually benefits the jews, but he when we don't follow his way he threatens us with his “wrath”. There is a reason it's called a g-d fearing man, not a g-d loving man. There are so many awesome verses in exodus that talk about g-d’s anger it was hard to choose just one, but i found the perfect one for it tells us just how human g-d really is. “Now leave Me alone, and My anger will be kindled against them so that I will annihilate them, and I will make you into a great nation." Exodus 32:10 Here we see how g-d is angry with the jewish people because they made a golden calf and prayed to it and made sacrifices to it. Although this pasuch does provide an instance of g-d’s anger the interesting part comes with Moshe's response. Moses pleaded before the Lord, his God, and said: "Why, O Lord, should Your anger be kindled against Your people whom You have brought up from the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?” Exodus 32:12 Why, O Lord: Is anyone jealous of another, except a wise man of a wise man, or a strong man of a strong man? -[from Exod. Rabbah 43:6] Moshe points out that g-d is admitting he made a mistake, witch wood mean he is not all knowing and all seeing. Moreover g-d himself is realizing he made a mistake by thinking of wiping out the jewish people and starting over. Obviously g-d doesn't do this and Moshe essentially talks him out of it but the important thing is that g-d made a mistake and was then uncertain about his next
Divine retribution is a heavenly punishment of the general population by god accordingly of some activity. The majority of the way of life have the pattern of otherworldly discipline by god.Epicurus believed that the fear of divine retribution is the greatest source of fear and anxiety. Huge numbers of the Europeans church used to have the idea of divine retribution. Individuals used to give something to the church for recovery of the terrible thing done by them. They trust that this will prompt salvation to them. Being rebuffed by after death is the biggest dread for individuals. I concur with that. This will likewise bring about great living of the general population. They attempt to live great, crimeless and moral life to stay away from
The first question that Lamb raises is if God’s anger in the Old Testament is justifiable. In other words, can God be concerned with Love and still kill people in his anger? Lamb argues that God 's anger, although sometimes extreme is justified and necessary. To prove his point, Lamb uses the story of Uzzah (2 Sam. 6:1-8). In this story, King David recovered the Ark of The Covenant and paraded it throughout Israel in the back of an ox cart. In front of a large crowd of Israelites the Ark became unstable and Uzzah reached out to steady it, because of this God killed Uzzah instantly. At first this seems completely unjustified, it looks as though Uzzah was just protecting the Ark. But, the more we look into God’s motives, the more it makes sense. First, God commanded the Israelites to carry the Ark by two long poles that attach to the side of the Ark, and he was very clear about this. Second, by killing Uzzah in front of all of these people, God sent a message that said his laws shall not be disobeyed. It
The divine blesses the righteous and punishes the evil man to remind their limitation and worship to the God.
Throughout Exodus, God constantly tries to instill fear in Pharaoh and the Egyptians in order to prove that he is the Almighty, powerful God. However, despite being the creator of the universe, it is not so easy for God to prove to his creations that he should be worshipped. When trying to free the Israelites from their enslavement by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, God struggles to convince Pharaoh to release the Israelites. His difficulty in persuading Pharaoh causes him to cast ten plagues on the Egyptians to torture them until they become weak and decide to let the Israelites go. However, these plagues seem more like a cry out for people to notice him and acknowledge his power. God’s inability to control his own creations establishes his weakness
Omniscient God only have the power, knowledge and control over human; to maintain that superiority God typically responds to human behavior with what they deserve. God blesses the righteous and punishes the evil man to remind their limitation and worship to the God.
A classic example of this divine involvement occurs within the first page of The Iliad. Achilles, the great hero of the Achaean armies, and Agamemnon the commander-in-chief of the Argives clash bitterly, and the entire epic centers on this conflict. Homer details the cause of this
man is created by him and in his image. The murderer, thus, did violence to God
One example of the tension between the gods and humans is when Ishtar is rejected by Gilgamesh, and tries to destroy Uruk. Unlike any other person who had been refused, Ishtar used her relationship with the gods to demand the Bull of Heaven kill Gilgamesh and cause famine in Uruk for seven years. She ordered, “Give me the Bull of Heaven, just for a little while. I want to bring it to earth, I want it to kill that liar Gilgamesh and destroy his palace. If you say no, I will smash the gates of the underworld, and a million famished ghouls will ascend to devour the living, and the living will be outnumbered by the dead”
Another example of this is the fact that not only did the Jewish people suffer at the hand of God, those around them had to suffer as well. This is similar to the wasp that Jacques mentions in the film; it lays its eggs inside a caterpillar and then eats its way out, which kills the caterpillar. Sometimes in nature, in order for one to survive, another must die. In his article “The Bible and the Legitimation of Violence,” Collins says, that the book of Deuteronomy “repeatedly tells the Israelites to be compassionate to slaves and aliens, and to remember that they were slaves in the land of Egypt.” Therefore, God’s inclination towards violence does not make sense. God wanted all of humanity to be good and preach goodness, despite whatever hardships they had faced. In His eyes, everyone was deserving of love and no one should be forced to have faith in Him. The reason for this was quite simple, if one has to be forced by threat of violence to believe and trust in a higher power, then they are not being faithful for their own sake but only out of fear. God
Ancient Greek stands in an important position in the art history. Ancient Greek art proper emerged during the eigth century BCE. Classical and Hellenistic period are the most impressive eras of Greece. There are many values of Greek 's culture become the fundamental tenets of today 's western civilization. Greeks created the concept of democracy and make a huge contributions in the fields of science, literature and art. Ancient Greece 's art and architecture also have a strong influential to western society. Moreover, the Greeks made their gods into humans and their humans into gods. The perfect individual became the Greek ideal and the portrayal of beautiful humans became the focus of many of the greatest Greek artists. Greek ideal is one of the most important cultures of Greece and it also has a great influence of Greek religion, philosophy and society. The art work of Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Period have shown that Greek has achieved their lofty goals in many aspects of their civilization.